| Deployment
Event
Texas Floods near Houston, TX due to stalled tropical storm Allison. This storm is the second costliest in US history, second only to Huricane Andrew. Damage costs have exceded 2 billion dollars.
Deployed
Members
During our annual training weekend and drill on June 9, we received a request for communication specialists to assist on the Management Support Team (MST) in Texas. Three telecommunications specialist responded that they thought there was a possibility that they could go once they checked with work. Commo Dan was selected and was actually packed and ready to go as he had to give the team "personal equipment packing" talk during the training that afternoon. Some 8 hospitals in Houston have been effected either by partial or full evacuation. Around 1200 patients from these hospitals have been transported to other hospitals. Over 30 shelters have been opened around the Houston region. Saturday night, we received word from NDMS that Dan would be scheduled to leave sometime on Sunday evening and meet up with the team members flown in on Sunday morning. We also had been told that the Houston Airport has been shut down so alternate routing may be needed. The Sunday evening target slipped by as no flights were going into Houston. Several DMAT teams had been deployed Saturday afternoon to the Houston area and arrived Sunday. These teams are: Arkansas-1; North Carolina-1; New Mexico-1; Oklahoma-1; Texas-1; Texas-3; and Texas-4. NDMS finally found a flight for Dan into Houston and he departed Monday morning around 7 AM from the Dayton International Airport. After some delays at the airport, Dan arrived and was transported to the MST with two other Communications personnel from MI-1 around 2 PM. By Monday, teams were located at the Astrodome, Houston Police Academy, and the Grayson Center. The MST that Dan is attached to is at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Houston about a mile from the Astrodome. By Monday afternoon, NDMS had over 140 personnel in the Houston area. Meanwhile, OH-5 was asked late Monday night to assess the availability of additional team nursing personnel. Tuesday the team identified personnel who could be ready for deployment. Tuesday, Dan and other Commo personnel setup and install a radio systems, satellite systems and upgrade laptop computers to Office 2000, etc. They hope to have an integrated data network up and running by Wednesday for the MST. MST communications specialists have also evaluated DMAT communications needs. Crews are working day and night shifts to accomplish all. Dan reports, "I have been having a really great time and learning all kinds of things. I have been setting up repeaters, a satellite phone, extending phone lines, setting up computer networks, and a lot of other things. There are 9 commo members here at the MST and work really well together. There are a couple of guys that are a continual hoot, and have been designated as commo cisd officers. I feel real good about what I am doing here in Houston. We drove past two hospitals a couple nights ago that were completely dark still. It seems all businesses mount their electrical power transformers in the basement and were flooded out."
On June 13th, we deployed two of our team staff nurses, Maggie and Josie to houston bringing the total to 3 OH-5 members deployed. The nurses were requested as a result of additional funding for staffing fixed and field hospitals. They were initially assigned to the VA which was to take responsibility of nursing assignments. At the VA, they augmented the existing VA staff as Nurse Assistants until reassigned. Three days later the VA reassigned them to hospitals that were experiencing overload far in excess of their normal staffing shortages.
Josie reports: I am fine. I arrived here on the 13th and they put me to work right away........ It is totally crazy down here. I have learned tons of medical spanish that I will be able to use later. The floods have receded now but a lot of people lost everything. I am hoping to be home by Thursday the 21st." Josie was assigned to a county hospital in their Pediatric ER. Maggie was assigned on the 16th to Park Plaza Hospital and worked their ER at night. The ER was experiencing a patient load over 3 times what they normally would experience and thus needed the extra DMAT personnel to assist. She summed up her experience as "neat" although food was expensive and transportation shaky at times. Maggie finally returned home on the 20th.
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